History Night with Minnesota Stars FC this Saturday
Hundreds of fans lined up after the Stars game to get their favorite players autographs at last year’s Minnesota Soccer History Night.
For the second year the Minnesota Stars will be celebrating History Night and they’d like you to be part of it. The Stars will honor more than 35 years of professional soccer history in Minnesota August 11 when they take on the North American Soccer League-leading San Antonio Scorpions at NSC Stadium. The second annual Minnesota Soccer History Night will feature an exhibition match between former Minnesota soccer professionals and a ceremony to celebrate the career of former Minnesota Thunder and Stars goalkeeper Joe Warren.
“There have been more than 350 professional soccer players that have played on Minnesota’s teams over the last 40 years, and we think it’s important to recognize all of the players who laid the groundwork for where Minnesota professional soccer is today,” said Stars player-coach Kevin Friedland, who is in his ninth season in Minnesota as a player and also serves as the Stars’ director of business development. Friedland organized the first History Night last year, which was a great success with many fans waiting around until after the Stars match to get autographs from players and coaches like Tony Sanneh, Alan Willey, Gerard Lagos, Buzz Lagos and many others.
“It’s amazing how many former players from the Kicks, Strikers, Thunder and even Stars came to Minnesota to play professional soccer and decided to make Minnesota their home, staying in the game as coaches, administrators and trainers,” Friedland said.
The evening’s festivities will kick off at 5:15 inside NSC Stadium as former Minnesota soccer pros go head-to-head. Last year’s match featured appearances by players from all four professional soccer clubs to have taken the field in Minnesota: the Minnesota Kicks, Strikers, Thunder and Stars. To improve on last year’s event, the Stars have added a halftime ceremony to honor the contributions of the entire group and celebrate the career of recently retired goalkeeper Joe Warren, who manned the nets for both the Stars and Thunder and was part of Minnesota’s two championship winning sides, the 1999 Thunder and the 2011 Stars.
Tickets to the Stars’ 7:30 match against San Antonio are required for admission to the History Night exhibition. Tickets start at just $6 in advance for youth age 17 and younger and $12 for adults. The first 500 fans through the gates will receive a commemorative History Night poster courtesy of JJ Murphy’s Irish Pub.
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Another team that’s been forgotten about is the 1965-66 (65 for sure) Minnesota All-Stars. Top Minnesota amateurs playing at Met Stadium against teams from Europe and the U.S. Olympic team.
The basis for the team was that the Met Stadium was sitting empty and Mr. Griffith thought it would be a way for them to make a little extra money with ticket buyers. Unfortunately it didn’t catch on.
Though I am not sure about ’65 or ’66, I do know that there was an All Star match between Minnesota and Wisconsin on May 20, 1967 . The Twins owner was trying to ramp up interest in soccer. Wisconsin won 3-2, in front of a crowd of 788. Ned Timarac who scored a goal for Wisconsin and was featured in a Pioneer Press article.